31-year-old Vlad Pirat became the first Ukrainian skateboarder whose profile was published on the website of the American skateboarding magazine Thrasher. Pirat uploaded this video to his YouTube channel back in September 2022, while some foreign skateboarding media refused to publish it because of a disclaimer about russia’s attack on Ukraine.
In a short interview with DTF Magazine Vlad tells the story of the profile, the difficulties due to the disclaimer, the position of the world media and what this publication in Thrasher means to him
‘From grinding two boards on a rail to sliding six kinks on a hubba, Vlad unleashes an uncanny stream of stunts in Ukraine and Spain before the war. Much love’, the description on Thrasher’s website reads.
— There’s information that the video wasn’t published because of the war disclaimer. Tell me more about that.
— It is actually quite simple. Most of the worldwide and European skate media are ‘for all good, against all bad’. They try to stay out of politics as much as possible. For example, under some Ukrainian videos they write ‘current situation’, ‘Ukraine crisis’, etc. In addition, during the time since the beginning of russia’s full-scale invasion, many skate resources continue to publish russian skate videos and, unfortunately, see nothing wrong in it.
Sure, there are those among the skate media who have and continue to call things by their proper names — and that should be respected — and spread the word from the beginning, but the big media prefers not to remember the war in any way.
For half a year I have been looking for those who know people from foreign media, I have been communicating with them, trying to get this video published somewhere. But, as I said at the beginning, because of the text (with a disclaimer about the russian invasion — Note from DTF Magazine), many people refused. Some people stopped responding, some people offered to remove the text from the video so they could publish it. But when you are editing a video under shelling in a shelter, you don’t want to remove the text. That was my position.
— Why do you think the Thrasher team had a change of heart?
— On the Thrasher website, back in March 2022, there was a documentary about Maidan Nezalezhnosti — ‘Revolutions on Granite’ Ukraine Skate Documentary. It was filmed earlier, but it was posted with an appeal to support Ukraine. The film is about the main skate location in Kyiv and how Ukrainian skateboarding was born.
And about the publication of my video, it’s just very difficult to break out of the local bubble of Ukrainian skateboarding and reach someone. No matter what high level you have, it’s almost impossible to find contacts if you don’t personally know the right people. Unfortunately, this is still a big problem in Ukrainian skateboarding — we are kind of isolated from the outside world.
— What does this publication mean to you as a skateboarder?
— I guess I haven’t realized it yet. Thrasher is not just another skate media that exists exclusively in our skater’s media space. It’s a global print magazine that has been around for over 40 years and sets the world’s bar for skate level. Thrasher is already a household name, equal to high-level hardcore skateboarding. Getting on the magazine’s pages or website is perhaps like a worldwide recognition of you and your level of skating.
When you read this magazine or watch some videos on the Thrasher website, you think: ‘It would be cool to be there someday’. But it’s like playing drums in your garage, dreaming that someday your music video will be on MTV. It seems possible, but how to get to that level is unknown.
Although I’m skeptical about everything I do, I’m glad it happened. It’s not the video I envisioned, but here’s the first Ukrainian profile on the Thrasher website. It’s a big step. I hope that the people who laid the foundation of Ukrainian skateboarding are proud that this finally happened. And for our next generation, it’s an indicator of what’s possible.
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— Why is the video called ‘Truna’?
— As someone who has been skating for over 15 years, I have long wanted to not only be a consumer in skate culture, but also a contributor. I have a personal vision of skateboarding and the surrounding universe, and it has never been too positive. ‘Truna’ is the name of my project (clothing brand founded by Vlad in 2023 — Note from DTF Magazine).
Skateboarding for me is not about just having fun. In my case, when you try to shoot something really decent, it’s always injuries, clashes with others, inner fear and competition with yourself. You never know if you’re about to do a trick or if your friends are going to call an ambulance for you.
There is also a general lack of understanding from the surrounding society. All of this together shaped me exactly like this, and I’ve already put it all into ‘Truna’.
All things considered, I think this word is a perfect fit for both my brand and video.
— You said on Instagram that you shot your first trick for the video four years ago. Why did you publish it in the fall of 2022, after so much time?
— Had it not been for the full-scale war that russia started, I would have kept making this video for at least another year. Objectively, this video is 30% of what I would like to see as a result.
To make a quality skate video of at least European level, you need more than one month and even more than one year. Some of the tricks in the video took me 2-3 months to do.
You come to the location in the morning while there are no people, you spend hours trying to do a trick, someone kicks you out, people call the police, you break boards, you get hurt. It takes time to recover, you come again, and so on until you get that 5-10 seconds of material, and you need at least 3 minutes of that.
You have to travel a lot, you need money for that. You don’t get it for skating, the maximum in our Ukrainian skateboarding is sponsorship with boards and skating clothes, for which I am grateful to radiusshop, who supports me.
But the tricks need to be filmed correctly. This is a separate problem of Ukrainian skateboarding — lack of industry and, as a consequence, lack of cameramen. So thanks to everyone who filmed me, and especially to Vasilkan (video cameraman — Note from DTF Magazine), who really knows how to do it. Also, there are injuries that set you back for months. Here’s how it happens.
When full-scale war broke out, skateboarding ceased to exist for me. I don’t think I need to explain the mental state we all went through. Maybe then, for the first time in my life, I needed the media popularity that I had. I tried to spread the word among the global skate community, even made an agreement with an American skate brand to make boards in support of Ukraine. But in general, just some reposts almost never worked ‘for export’, so I decided to edit all the tricks I had filmed until 2022 and spread this video with a message.
Finally, in September 2022, I put the profile online. And a year and a half later it appeared on the Thrasher website, exactly in the form and with the message I wanted to convey, without any editing or censorship.
— What else should the reader know about this video?
— Everything I wanted to say, I think I’ve told you. I hope this is not my last and in general Ukrainian profile on Thrasher.
But the next time you see teenagers skateboarding near a theater, park, monument, square, etc. in your city, don’t kick them out and shout that they are destroying everything and are about to break all their bones. If you don’t like it and don’t have the humanity to support them, just pass by. Maybe 15 years from now one of them will be representing our country on the international stage, maybe even in the Olympics. Don’t destroy their dreams. Thank you.
Vlad Pirat is a Ukrainian skateboarder and founder of Truna clothing brand. Since 2018, Vlad has skated in the pool of Kyiv’s Kapkan store, and now he is a rider of Radius skateshop.
